


Broader Shoulders

by gaslightgallows (hearts_blood)



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Canon Divergence - Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Leadership, One Shot, Post-Endgame, Responsibility, Shippy if you Squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-12
Updated: 2019-06-12
Packaged: 2020-05-02 00:30:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19188274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hearts_blood/pseuds/gaslightgallows
Summary: At first, Valkyrie's excited at the prospect of being queen. But then she stops to think.





	Broader Shoulders

**Author's Note:**

> Well _that_ sure was a movie I’m never watching or acknowledging ever again. Thorkyrie if you squint, but I wanted to leave it up to the reader.
> 
> If you're over on Tumblr, please consider following me at [gaslightgallows.tumblr.com](https://gaslightgallows.tumblr.com/) for more fic, reblogs about writing, and lots of randomness. 
> 
> I also write original fiction! You can find it at [aflinley.com](https://www.aflinley.com/).
> 
> Thank you for reading and especially for commenting. Comments are love. ♥

Queen. Queen Brunnhilde. The Valkyrie queen of New Asgard.

She had to admit, it had a certain ring to it.

But after the adrenaline of the battle, and the renewed mourning for those who hadn't come back, and after the high of being given the throne and crown wore off, it wasn't long before she came to her senses.

"I can't be queen," she announced bluntly to the soon-to-be-former king.

Thor didn't even pause in his packing. "Of course you can," he replied. "I'm the king and I say, I'm done with it. You're queen now."

"I'm not. I do not accept. I refuse the burden."

"You can't do that." Thor reached for a bottle of ale and chugged back half the liquid in one gulp. "King says you're queen, you can't exactly say 'no' to that."

"If the king's made me queen, that means whatever I say is law, and I say, I refuse to be queen. And we can keep going back and forth like some demented game of hot potato, but it's all pointless, because I'm not doing it. I'm not going to just accept you shrugging off your birthright and your responsibilities onto me."

That made Thor straighten up and look at her, really look at her, for the first time in years. Valkyrie met his gaze squarely, searching for the brash, angry, hopeful prince-turned-king she had pledged to serve, and seeing only his ghost. He was still  _there_ , somewhere, she was sure of it. But as to whether he could ever be resurrected...

"The people need someone they can rely on," Thor muttered, looking down the neck of the bottle. "We both know that's not me anymore." He snorted. "And you know, maybe it never was. You'll be a much better leader than I could ever be. You've already been doing the job, the people know you, they trust you—"

"They tolerate me," she corrected, "because there was no one else. Because you shut yourself up and left them to me. What else was I supposed to do, after everything they'd been through?"

"After everything  _I_  went through!"

"You seriously think you were the only person who lost everything? That you're the only one who suffered?"

"It was my fault!"

"Oh my god, your majesty, you couldn't have stopped him! No one could!"

"I am the god of thunder, the son of Odin All-Father and Frigga, the supposed rightful king of Asgard and all the Nine Realms... I should have been able to put an end to him. And when I couldn't... it was better for everyone that I stay away, lest my cowardice taint what remains of Asgard."

"Okay, fine, good of the many, whatever. And now? Now that it's all been put right, you're just going to up and leave with a bunch of space jockeys? What's your excuse now?"

Thor looked at her stonily. The hand that clenched the beer bottle was tense with suppressed anger, but he wasn't enraged enough to crush the bottle or throw it at her head. Yet.

"I've spent the last five years holding this community together for you, waiting for you to find your way out of a Thanos-shaped hole, by yourself, because you wouldn't let anybody help you. Because you didn't think you were worthy of being king  _or_  of being helped."

"Well, if anyone would know about that, it'd be you."

Valkyrie gritted her teeth. " _If_  I know anything, it's that running away from your problems, whether it's into a bottle or halfway across the universe, isn't going to fix your mistakes. It's not going to fill that hole. It's not going to bring Loki back—"

Thor turned away from her sharply.

"You haven't mentioned his name since we landed on Earth. He was your brother, damn it."

"What does it matter? Nothing will bring him back. Nothing I do can fix that."

"No. And nothing I do is ever going to bring back the sisters I lost to Hela. But their deaths don't mean I have the right to throw my life away. Not anymore than I already have, at least." She stepped forward and wrapped her hand around Thor's, on the neck of the bottle. "The difference is, when I left Asgard, there was no one left who still needed me. But there are five hundred people here who are desperate to have their king back."

Thor jerked at the bottle but Valkyrie held it fast. He growled and pulled again, but she would not let go, and after a minute or so of this half-hearted tug of war, the reluctant king began to cry.

_Oh, fuck my life._  But she kept the thought off her face.

"It just want it to stop," Thor choked out. "If I leave—"

"If you leave, it's just going to follow you. Because now it's part of you, and there's never going to be any getting away from it." Reluctantly, Thor's grip on the bottle relaxed, and she eased it from his fingers. "There's no getting away from it, so you might as well just learn how to live with it. Because there's nothing else we can do." Valkyrie shrugged and drained off the rest of the ale.

Thor dropped heavily into a chair. "So what exactly do you expect me to do? Just go back to being king, as though nothing ever happened? I ruled over the Asgardian people for all of what, two days? God, Loki was king for longer than I was. And he was  _good_  at it."

"So I've heard. There are a lot of stories about him that the people like to tell. His memory is honored, Thor. And maybe you need to do a little of that for a change, instead of refusing to talk about him."

Thor frowned. "You didn't even like him."

"Of course I didn't like him, he was a little shit. But he was a good prince, and he cared about his people and about you, and you're doing a really crap job of making all of that mean something. He stood at your side at your coronation, the same as I did. He believed in you. And if he was here—"

"If he was here," Thor murmured, his voice thick with tears, "he'd be laying elaborate schemes to lure me back into the world. Creating chaos that only I could put right. It's strange but I have to admit, he kept me... balanced. Without him..."

"Without him, life still has to go on. I'm not Loki; I'm not going to be subtle about my attempts to get you off your ass and get your head out of the clouds. And I'm not letting you dump all your problems on me and walk away. I'll walk away first."

"Don't, don't do that, please. I'll-I'll beg, if I have to. I can't do this alone!"

"You won't be alone." Valkyrie dragged a chair round and sat across from him. "Look... if you really want me to keep doing what I've been doing, then fine, I'll do it, I'll be queen. But only if you stay as my partner."

"Your—uh, that's... rather sudden..."

"I'm  _not_  asking you to marry me."

"No, no. That would be – no."

"But. Co-rulers. Me as queen, you as king... we split the job. I keep doing what I'm doing, you go back to doing what you were starting to do before the world ended. I think it could work."

"Maybe. Maybe it could."

"Besides, if you run off with Quill and his lot, you're just going to be back here in six months, after you've ripped his head off and used it for a chamber pot or something equally gross."

Thor's sorrowful face suddenly brightened. "Oh, but that's a very tempting thought." He grinned and scrubbed the back of his hand over his wet eyes and cheeks. "Oh... hell, fine. If Loki could run Asgard in his bathrobe while snacking and watching self-insert theater, I can at least do half as good, with help."

Valkyrie smiled, deeply relieved, not only for her sake, but for her king's. "Good. Just... one thing."

"Hmm? Oh. Oh, I suppose you'd like me to lose..." Thor gestured to his midsection.

"What? No, not that. What do I care? No, just try to lay off the video games, okay? Attend a council meeting once in a while?"

He heaved a sigh. " _Fine._  You're just still upset that I can beat you at Mario Kart."


End file.
